Chapter 424 — Defying the Azure Heaven

Two violent collisions rang out; two blood-drenched gods and demons burst out from behind that ocean of blood, dragging broken limbs and severed arms, wailing shrilly. But they were, after all, unmatched in strength; though they had lost the initiative, gods and demons were gods and demons, and together they broke the Village Head's move.

Yet what awaited them was still the bloody ocean.

One Sword Opens the Emperor, Bloody Ocean!

The Imperial Preceptor of Jingping shook his sword, wielding also One Sword Opens the Emperor, Bloody Ocean, the same move as the Village Head's; and though the move was the same, the two men's technique differed somewhat, and their inner meanings were worlds apart.

This move the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping had comprehended who knows how many times over from the diagram of the Sword God with the Sword upon His Back that the Deaf Elder had transformed into; one might call it the awakening of his sword art.

The two gods and demons were stricken with terror; no road remained behind them, and they could only charge into that sword-light like a sea of blood.

Chi, chi, chi, chi — countless piercing sounds came; divine blood gushed in that ocean; from the sword diagram a few divine bones rolled out.

Other starlights rushed in and struck the sword diagram; the Imperial Preceptor of Jingping spat blood; the sword diagram was broken, and it looked as though those starlights would cross the Divine Severance Mountains, when the Gray Immortal opened his sack and shook it to the wind; at once the sack swelled madly, like an enormous cave mouth, and drew those starlights in.

The Gray Immortal swiftly tied the sack shut and was about to deal the gods and demons inside a deadly blow, when the sack suddenly burst, blasting the Gray Immortal backwards; the Willow Immortal hastily flung out her arm, her hand soft as a snake without bones, and coiled it about the Gray Immortal. Scarcely had she caught him when she felt the dreadful power of a god-demon of the High Heavens come from within the Gray Immortal; her face changed greatly, and at once her arm was twisted by that force into a wringing knot.

The Willow Immortal tumbled and rolled, spinning madly, straining with all her might to shed that dreadful force.

Seeing that things were going badly, the White Immortal at once flew forward, and needle after needle from her tray pierced into the bodies of the Willow Immortal and the Gray Immortal, drawing that dreadful power out of them; only thus were both their lives saved.

Pa, pa, pa — great waves burst open upon the sea surface, and one towering figure after another stood upon the sea, the waters surging in from all sides: Star Lord Qiao, Lord Hua, and Star Lord Yan at their head, forming a triangle, while the other thirteen gods and demons spread out around them.

These sixteen gods and demons pressed the Kun King so hard that his two arms trembled and he could not hold the sea aloft, grunting again and again, until suddenly his arms snapped with a crack. The sixteen gods and demons pressed down still further; the Kun King could not help spitting blood, and hurriedly laid the sea flat. Peak after peak thrust up out of the sea surface; the crowd stood upon the several peaks of the Divine Severance Mountains, below them swaying green waves, and beneath the water the mountain's body.

This sea was not deep, only some hundred zhang thick; the turtle-shell ship that Xuan Shengwu had become sailed upside down along the sea's underside, and the Soaring Serpent and the Dark Turtle, their eyes flickering, watched through the sea surface the reflections of those gods and demons, waiting for the moment to strike. The Village Head, his brows and beard snow-white, looked toward Star Lord Qiao, Lord Hua, and Star Lord Yan, and said in a deep voice, "Star Lords, all of you, you must know what consequence opening those treasures would bring.

Do you truly mean to destroy every last subject of this Jingping Kingdom? " Star Lord Qiao's face was expressionless.

"If there is blame, blame only yourselves for not knowing the height of heaven and the depth of earth, for angering the High Heavens, for angering Heaven; you cannot blame us. Old Human Emperor, we too act on orders. " The Village Head said, "Then there is nothing to discuss?

" Star Lord Qiao shook his head. "Though I hate all of you to the bone, I do not hate the common people of this lower world, nor do I wish to do this.

But when Emperor Yanfeng slew Lord Yu with a single cannon shot, there was already nothing to discuss.

And now this reform of the law and of the Way has severed.

.

. " Xuan Shengwu, on the far side of the sea, came beneath Star Lord Qiao's feet and suddenly burst up; the Soaring Serpent pierced through the great sea and coiled toward Star Lord Qiao, the Dark Turtle's attack following close behind, waiting only for the Soaring Serpent to bind Star Lord Qiao before striking him dead in a single blow.

". .

. severed the hope of talk.

" Star Lord Qiao let the Soaring Serpent coil about him; the Dark Turtle's attack came on its heels, but Lord Hua and Star Lord Yan, one to the left and one to the right, thrust a flower and a flute into the Dark Turtle's left and right temples, destroying his brain.

The Soaring Serpent shrieked and made to rescue him; Star Lord Qiao's divine sword spun swiftly around the Soaring Serpent, and the Soaring Serpent was hewn into lengths that fell away. Star Lord Qiao said calmly, "Only when this generation of common people is wiped out will those above be at ease.

" "Xuan Shengwu! " the Kun King cried; the golden-horned spear in his hand blazed with ten thousand rays and stabbed toward Star Lord Qiao; Tu Xingfeng ground his teeth and swung his sharp-horned great hammer to kill his way over; behind Star Lord Qiao, god after god and demon after demon stirred and moved to meet them.

The moment they moved, the Blind Elder, the Silent Artisan, the Five Immortals, the Winged King, and the others had no choice but to move as well; the Divine Severance Mountains quaked violently, pressed a full measure shorter by the crowd's divine powers.

And at that moment the Star Sea grew brighter and brighter, the chains clattering, and a sun rose slowly from the abyss of the Star Sea, scattering the darkness all around.